THE DUKE of Cambridge visited one of the hottest places in the Solar System today when he met scientists at a potentially world-changing energy project.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at Culham Science Centre, near Abingdon, welcomed The Duke to mark the end of construction of MAST Upgrade, a nuclear fusion experiment.

His Royal Highness stood yards away from the MAST Upgrade chamber, where temperatures will soon be 50 million degrees celsius - more than three times hotter than the sun.

The five-year project aimed to build a machine capable of creating artificial stars, with The Duke running a test of a ‘plasma’ – the hot gas that will form inside MAST Upgrade when it operates.

The MAST Upgrade device starts up next year.